Abstract
In this paper, we propose a novel evaluation method for forensic science, which uses FEM analysis and a drop-weight test, in order to evaluate the human body damage by blunt weapons. In judging child abuse and confirming the authenticity of its guilt, knowledge by scientific investigation is required for objective and quantitative evaluation in Japan. However, it is considered to be a problem that highly accurate investigations, which considers the differences among individuals, have not been performed and the evaluation based on easy-to-understand criteria have not been established for the Japanese lay judge system. Therefore, in this study, we designed new experiments: one was fracture load measurement of newborn porcine tails with a force tester and the other was FEM analysis of the fracture load which simulated the real experiments. As the results of both experiments, we estimated the fracture load of an infant's skull with high accuracy. We investigated the fracture behavior in the FEM analysis with a load area of 100-1000 mm2 and concluded that the obtained fracture load corresponds to fall height of more than 1.2 m by comparing with the load which was obtained by dropping a weight of 30% of the infant weight.
